Poker Novel

[wins_pot]

This thread will surely get ridiculous, but here goes.....

I've been working on a poker novel for about six months. I have about sixty pages of single-spaced text. My problem is this: I have a lot of great scenes and characters, but no story.

David Levien is a very talented writer, and I suspect that the reason he introduced the cheating element into both Rounders and Tilt is that it helps generate story.

A good story involves an interesting character struggling through obstacles towards some end. The problem is that poker is a fundamentally empty activity, and the only obvious thing that people strive towards is money.

Does anyone have any insights about telling a good story that revolves around poker?

-wins_pot